Kingdom People Producing Kingdom Fruit Matthew 21:43 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God, our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Our theme today is Kingdom People Producing Kingdom Fruit. It’s based on our Gospel, especially verse 43 “The kingdom of God will be … given to a people producing its fruits”.

When we think of the different states in our country, we think of different fruits or crops.

What fruit do you think of when I say Florida? Oranges

What fruit do you think of when I say Georgia? Peaches

Let’s switch to field crops. What crop do you think of when I say Iowa? Corn

How about Kansas? Wheat…

Back to fruits, more specifically within a state, how about Napa Valley, California? Wine, Grapes.

What fruit do you think of when I say the Kingdom of God, the Church?

I would say the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22 gives a partial list: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The people of God are called and empowered to bear godly fruit. That’s why we’re here, and that’s why we’ll be in Heaven someday -- to bear the fruit of the Spirit, and in that way to bear witness to Christ and bring glory to God, and to be a blessing to others.

In our Gospel, Jesus teaches us a parable about fulfilling our purpose of bearing godly fruit, and what happens when we refuse to do so.

The parable Jesus teaches parallels the parable by Isaiah in our Old Testament lesson.

Isaiah presents this parable as a love song. The one I love planted a vineyard, clearing the soil, investing in high quality vines, building a wall to keep the animals out, and a tower from where it could be watched over, and a wine press to make fine wine. 

But the vineyard produced bad grapes, wild grapes that were useless, even though the owner had invested so much in the vineyard, the best of everything. So the owner decided he would take down the wall, and let the goats and other animals devour the vineyard until there was nothing left of it.

Then Isaiah said the vineyard is the land of Judah, and the owner is the Lord, who has invested so much love and blessing upon His people, but they rejected His favor, and produced bad fruit, injustice and violence. 

And so God would allow them to be conquered and destroyed by foreign armies, and God would give His Gospel to those who would treasure it, and bear fruit in keeping with God’s love.

This parable would be temporarily fulfilled when Israel and Judah were conquered and taken into exile by the Assyrians and Babylonians. But it would be hundreds of years later, after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that this parable would be ultimately fulfilled, as the Gospel was rejected by Judaism, and given to the Gentiles and God-fearers, as they were called. 

So Jesus would be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s parable, as He is the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament.

Isaiah’s parable teaches us to remain faithful to our Creator and Redeemer, and to bear godly fruit, to live the kind of lives that honor God, and bear witness to His holy love.

In our Gospel, Jesus retells Isaiah’s parable, but with a twist, adapting it to the current situation. 

Jesus tells of a land owner planting a vineyard and leasing it. But in this case, the vineyard yielded good grapes. And he sent His servants to collect his share. But the renters refused to give the owner what he was owed. And they were so arrogant and evil that they beat up and killed his servants. 

He sent more servants, and they did the same.

Then he reasoned that if he sent his son, they wouldn’t dare to neglect or abuse him. But they killed his son, thinking they could then claim the vineyard as their own.

Jesus asked the Pharisees, or their spies who were listening what they thought would be the right thing for the owner to do? And they said, “Punish those evil tenants and give the vineyard to others who will respect the owner.” 

Jesus outmaneuvered them, and got them to unwittingly admit their guilt. He knew they were planning to have him killed. And He told them where their rejection of the Gospel would lead to. 

Jesus said, Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 

And so, after He died and rose and sent the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ disciples would take the Gospel to the Gentiles. And sadly, most of Jesus’ kinsmen would end up rejecting Him and the life he died to give them.

This parable teaches us to remain faithful to the Gospel, and bear godly fruit in keeping with the Gospel.

To say it another way, kingdom people exist to bear kingdom fruit.

Our first responsibility is the remain faithful to this Gospel we’ve been baptized into. If we throw it away, we have nothing of equivalent value left. 

As we said last Sunday for confirmation, if we lose friends who try to lead us astray, we haven’t really lost anything. But if we lose Jesus, our truest friend, we lose everything.

He gave His life for ours. To throw that away by not believing is to be supremely selfish and horribly ungrateful. The way to disrespect and devalue God the most, is to reject His Son, as Jesus taught in this parable.

To repent and believe in Him as your God and Savior, is to appreciate, and honor,  love and respect Him. So of first importance is to believe in God’s Son.

Our next responsibility is to bear fruit in keeping with faith in Jesus. His pledge is to forgive and save us. Our pledge is to bear the kind of fruit that gives witness to the salvation He offers, fruit that’s born of the Spirit: love and peace and joy and much more.

The pledge of the LWML is to bear godly fruit with our hands to work for Him, our feet to go on His errands, our voice to sing His praises, our lips to proclaim His redeeming love, our silver and our gold to extend His Kingdom, our will to do His will, and every power of our life to bring the lost into eternal fellowship with Him.

All we are and have exists to bear witness to our loving Savior.

We sometimes fail to keep our pledge to bear godly fruit, and we bear the fruit of sin and selfishness instead. But as we truly confess our sin, Jesus pledges to forgive us, and restore us to our place in His Kingdom, where we will bear the Kingdom fruit that is so desperately needed in this world we live in, and is such a wonderful blessing to the world. 

May God keep you forever faithful to His dear Son, so that, living in His grace and empowered by His Spirit, you would bear an abundance of godly, kingdom fruit, and so be a blessing and a joy unto others.

And as you bear this blessed kingdom fruit, God’s peace, which passes understanding, will guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, His dear Son and our dear Savior. To Him be the all glory and praise, now and forever. Amen.